Legacies
of the Cold War

Located above the Arctic Circle at Point Lay, AK (population 247). Comm.
link is by a White Alice Communications System (WACS), troposcatter installation.
(left) This site is designated a Long Range Radar Station (LRRS). link

Parabolic, billboard like, Reflectors

The troposcatter system operated around 900 MHz, and utilized both space
and frequency diversity. It used pairs of 60 ft (18 m) or 120 ft (37 m)
parabolic, billboard like reflectors.

. .

Hardened Troposcatter Communication
Sites in VA & NC

[VA-1] is one of five "Project Offices" built by AT&T in the 1960s
in the mid-Atlantic region. The station is hardened against nuclear blasts,
and features an earth-covered underground building with a "drive-through"
entrance-decontamination area, a high-powered troposcatter radio communication
s system with large concrete-backed reflectors, a helipad, blast-resistant
terrestrial microwave "dish" antennas, and physical-security measures beyond
those used at conventional AT&T facilities.

Detailed information about [VA-1]'s function has never been revealed.
The facility housed a switching system for the Department of Defense's
AUTOVON telephone network, but that was probably not the station's primary
mission. It's likely that [VA-1] supported a highly-classified
Continuity of Goverment program and may have served as an emergency relocation
site for senior executive-branch officials and/or military leadership.

[VA-1] is still an active, secure AT&T facility,
and unofficial visitors are not permitted.

The Parabolic Reflectors are fed R.F. from hardened
concrete feed horn structures that are low profile to the ground and fed
from hardened underground bunkers several stories down that house the communication
equipment as well as life support and crew quarters.

.

.

Another example of a hardened Troposcatter
Antenna(The appendage at the top is
a Gamma Ray Detector)